continued castle district trekking

After listening to the Swedish football team's fight song (surprisingly in English!), Karena and I got up to check out the northern part of the castle district. It was here that we got away from the oppressive tourist hoards that were congregating in all the areas of the southern Castle District. The southern half is mostly where you find all the sights and restaurants. The northern half is were all the old residences are found. We both soon realized this after one to two blocks. Soon, it was just Karena and me, walking down quaint cobblestone alleys.
We passed a few houses that had objects inlaid into the mortar or building materials. Other buildings had small niches that were filled with flowers or other plants. We also saw buildings with small medallions, perhaps to commemorate a famous former resident or partial occupant. Something like those rumors of "George Washington Slept Here." It was really quite nice. I decided to turn down a small alley that led to a gravel street parallel to the rampart wall. Soon we were walking next to people's back-yard terraces and balconies. Karena thought someone was going to come out and yell at us for trespassing, so we turned back onto one of the streets.

We soon arrived at the Bécsi kapu (the Vienna Gate), where according to Rick Steves, "you can walk for 10 days and arrive in Vienna." This is assuming you know what roads to travel on and avoid getting lost. The Vienna Gate is also where the Hungarian army overpowered the Turks in the 1680s and reclaimed the Castle District for Hungary. Check out this link for a great panoramic shot of the area surrounding the gate. Notice all the quaint little houses and Hungarian cabbage burners (cars). Also in the immediate area of the Vienna Gate is the Magyar Országos Levéltár (Hungarian National Archives). The roof has a great pattern to it, which mimics the roof of Matthias Church. The building is a HUGE Romanesque-style building; it is tall and sits partially on top of the Vienna Gate. I couldn't even get the whole thing in a picture. Check out my picasa account for close-up details of the entrance and the columns surrounding it.
Around the corner, at Kapisztrán ter, are the remains of the Church of Mary Magdalene. The area around the remains are very old; I'm not sure how old the actual pieces of the church are that are still standing. The tower and nave window looked like they were in fairly good condition and didn't look like they had survived several wars dating back to the 17th Century. Still, it was quite something to see the two lone pieces of a church standing. Karena and I wandered around the site and soaked up our surroundings. It was getting late and we wanted to head back across the river to the Pest side of the Danube. So we decided to take a nice walk along the western rampart (Tóth Árpád sétány) of the Castle District. This overlook gave us views of the Buda neighborhoods outside of the Castle District and the hills further west of the city. It all looked very woodsy and nice. Further out, the neighborhoods that centered around the hills all seemed to be covered in trees and other types of foliage. Whether it was intentional or not, it was a great move on the part of people who built there to preserve some sort of natural coverage, as opposed to just wiping the slate clean and covering it with bricks, mortar, and concrete.
We traced our way back to the Funicular, but this time decided to descend on foot. The paths down the hill were nice and paved, and every once in a while we could come across a monument or stone memorial...we dodged the traffic to get back to the Chain Bridge and made it across to Pest. At this point, Karena's stomach was speaking to her again. We decided to stop at a cafe in the square surrounding St. Stephan's Basilica. We both ordered some small dishes and had a couple of beers and enjoyed our surroundings. There was actually a wedding that was going on at the Basilica, so we watched the wedding party leave from the church and pose for all of their pictures on the steps. I can't really imagine holding a wedding of 200 people in such a large space. And also, it didn't seem like they were prohibiting tourists from entering the space. Maybe the ceremony was being held in some part of the Basilica that we didn't see. Who knows. I just enjoyed getting off my feet for a while and letting my dogs rest.

We finished our late lunch and headed back to the hotel. While Karena napped...she seems to be able to fall asleep at any point of the day. That is a skill I really wish I had. So while she slept I planned our dining options for that night. I read about this one place in a guidebook and I don't know why it struck me, but I wanted Hanna's Kosher Kitchen. I think that I saw I could get "crispy and succulent Kosher chicken fried in breadcrumbs." Hahaha. After all that walking and exercise, I probably felt like I could eat an entire fried chicken! So, we navigated the old, dark streets of the Jewish quarter looking for this restaurant. We found it with no problems!!! Quite an accomplishment for us, I was very proud that I didn't get us lost. Unfortunately, it was Saturday night and the restaurant was closed :( I wasn't crushed (Karena was probably happy that I couldn't eat a whole fried chicken), but I wasn't happy. I felt much like this man below.
Fortunately we passed another restaurant on the way to Hanna's. It did not look crowded outside and luckily, they had a menu on the door. We had stumbled upon Kőleves Vendéglő (Stone Soup). For a description of the food and evening, see Karena's post. I had the hunting beef stew, which wasn't a stew at all. It was very delicious and something that I would like to try and replicate at home some time. The clientele was interesting. At two tables were groups of women who were probably in their late 20s to early 30s. The man behind us was in his 50s and the other fellow in the back was probably in his mid 40s. The younger people were definitely not there for the dining option. They ordered small plates and shots of Unicum, an herbal bitter similar to Jägermeister. The single fellow in the back of the restaurant was funny. He kept complaining to the wait staff about other restaurants in Budapest that had charged him every time he ordered a tea. I distinctly remember him asking if they had "free refills" more than once...in fact, when they said "no," I think he asked for a carafe of warm water so that he could continue to reuse his old teabag. Hahaha...he was funny. I think he ordered a cheeseburger. We could tell that the waitresses did not enjoy going to his table because it seemed he had a new absurd request/complaint every time they arrived.

I can't remember if we had dessert, BUT I do remember having more of the king-kong sized beers. I love the oversized beers I could get and would definitely not turn one away right now. Karena and I left the restaurant completely happy that Hanna's was closed. As difficult as it is for me to admit, the meal at Stone Soup was definitely better than an entire fried chicken.

Okay folks. I'm going to post maybe one or one-and-a-half more entries about Budapest and then it will be time for me to jet off to Korea. Next time I will talk about my search for Hungarian crepes, our walk down the shopping streets, and a fabulous last dinner on an old paddleboat.

Enjoy!

trekking the buda castle district

Hello readers. Jamie here with another Budapest entry. Karena and I were a little tied up with house guests on Friday, Saturday, AND Sunday so there was no time for blogging. It is a lot of work keeping up with two little tots and a crazy Turkish woman.

So I wanted to start this entry off with something that I forgot about last time. After we finished exploring St. Stephen's Karena and I decided to sit in the square and just watch people go by. That is when my frozen treat radar started going crazy. I noticed people walking around with cones of gelato shaped liked flowers. We did a little exploring and came across a little stall called Gelato Rosa. YUM! I love all things cold and creamy. Immediately, I ordered one cone that you see below. It was vanilla inside and strawberry outside. Karena got hazelnut wrapped in vanilla. It was good...definitely not the best. I really wish they had gelato di crema, a basic and simply decadent custard flavored gelato with a hint of citrus. It isn't fancy, but it is my absolute favorite. The old British folks next to us stared at our treats with envy. I would have happily volunteered the location, but they never bothered to ask. Hey, if they want to punish themselves who am I to stand in the way.

Okay, so now that I got that piece off of my chest, I can get back to talking about other things. We started off with breakfast at the hotel again. I loaded up on salamis and had two pieces of fruit...a doubling of my non-protein intake from yesterday :) Karena and I both wanted to hit Nagy Vásárcsarnok (Budapest's Central Market Hall). When I bought our tickets a while back, this was one of the things that I flagged as a "must see." Karena and I love to visit markets and shopping areas in different countries. I love to see all the neat things they have for sale and it is always a good place to find some tasty treats that we might not have heard of back home.

As with the rest of the buildings that I've commented on, we were not let down by the ornate decorations on the outside. I mean, just look at the details and varying patterns that are seen on the facade. There were TONS of other tourists here and I think they were partly drawn to look at the market itself. The stalls downstairs weren't anything spectacular. Just a lot of repetitious veggie and meat stalls. I did linger to look at the meat products, but I held back on purchasing a couple pounds of pork belly, whole chickens, and salamis to keep me company as a late-night snack. There were also a lot of stalls selling Pálinka, packages of Hungarian Paprika (available in the States, but of course I bought some) and whole capsicums. The vendors had a lot of other tourist garbage...stuff like mini spoons, magnets, lace of some kind, and t-shirts. The main tourist vending areas were on the second floor, which was quite claustrophobic. There were tons of stalls and they all had stuff hanging from rods above our heads. We didn't really see anything too spectacular. I had read in our guide book about a cheese vendor and a mushroom vendor, but then I realized that I couldn't really do much with the mushrooms. If we bought them we wouldn't have been able to cook them and I'm really not the type to walk down the street shoving mushrooms in my face.

I was also looking for hardcore Hungarian hooch. My buddy hot-pocket and I used to sit in bars and get rocked off this stuff. He had a colleague whose Hungarian gramma would send her bottles of the stuff. Don't ask me how she got it...all I know is that it was like gold on the lips. Unfortunately, I could never find anything I wanted. All the Pálinka I found was catered to tourists and nicely packaged as a gift. We did stop in some bodegas later in our trip, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy a bottle on a whim. There were so many different flavors that I didn't know which to choose. Lucky for me, Karena got the courage to buy three or four small bottles. So maybe when she's not looking I will dip into one or two of them!

It was in the market where I first noticed my unfortunate decision in attire. You see, I chose to wear my yellow Imperial Cerveza t-shirt. What I didn't realize was that the crazy Swedes were in town for a 2010 World Cup qualifier. Oops. Last time I was in Europe this happened too. I went to Denmark and my first day in Copenhagen was a 2006 World Cup qualifier. I had never witnessed so many of my partial brethren running around with open containers of Carlsberg (sometimes more than one open containers). That being said, I was ashamed to be in a bright yellow shirt like so many of these scruffy Swedes and was afraid that I was going to be mistaken for one.

I was just going to have to suck it up today. I had no intention of going back to the hotel. Karena and I were off to see Buda today. Home of the Budai Vár (Buda Castle), Mátyás-templom (Matthias Church), and the famous Halászbástya (Fisherman's Bastion) and several other great sites. Karena and I took Tram Number 2 from near the market to the closest stop near Széchenyi lánchíd (Széchenyi Chain Bridge). The tram was really cool because it drove right along the water. We could see great views of sites up and down the Buda side of the city...this included a teaser of the Castle District as well as views of the Gellért Baths. We got off at the Chain Bridge, walked across, and queued for the funicular up the hill. Even though you might thinkg both of us are runners, there was no way we were walking up that hill.

We arrived at the top of the hill and a couple of Italians promptly stopped and asked me to take five to seven pictures of them in varying poses. I think I did okay as a stand in fashion photographer. Karena's main draw to the Castle District was the House of Hungarian Wines, which allows one to drink unlimited samples from different Hungarian wine regions (and eat unlimited appetizers) with the payment of just one entry fee. Unfortunately for Karena, we found that this place was closed....but, I'm not sure if it is permanently closed or if it was temporary to do the Hungarian Wine Festival taking place a few days after we left. Either way, wine was not to be had. So we decided to hit the Budapest History Museum in the castle. I thought it was great. There was four floors of history to be seen. We got to look at historic artifacts that ranged from pre-history, to medieval era, to the modern age. I thought it was really neat to have the different layouts of the castle and of the city presented. We even got to walk around in the basement of the castle. The foundations were laid so long ago. It really is an interesting feeling to be surrounded by something that was constructed before so many events that shaped the world. I mean, I think the first castle structure was completed on the grounds around the middle of the 13th Century. That was even before Gutenberg Bible was printed. They even had delineated where specific rooms were set up, like the stairs for a tower, a storage room, or kitchen. It gives you a great sense of the space we enjoy and possibly even take for granted in out houses and apartments. You also could really get a sense of the variety of people and ethnic groups that made Budapest what it is today....not just Hungarian (or Magyar), but also Jewish, Turkish, and Germanic. You could see influences from the cultures in the tapestries, coats of arms, and marble stonework used to decorate buildings and tombs.

At that point we were both feeling pretty Hungry. Out in the main quad area, I had noticed (with my nose of course) something delicious. There was some sort of pastry that I had to try. Yes, I had to. I couldn't leave without giving it a taste. So we stopped and saw that it was something like funnel cake. It was called Kürtőskalács (Hungarian Chimney Cake). It came in eight or so flavors, but I wanted to get vanilla. The man took it off the heater and rolled it in sugar and gave it to me. As you can see, the cake didn't stand a chance.

This gave us enough fuel (I could actually use one now) to walk through the tiny streets of the Castle district. We hiked up the road to the area where the Buda Hilton is located. This is also near the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church. There were lots of small trinket shops, but I spotted one that looked legit. We went inside and it was selling all this great hand-made and hand-painted pottery. Karena and I went on a little splurge and spent like 200USD. It was well worth it though. WE got a lot of pieces four ourselves and family (hint: you will get your gift at Christmas if you haven't received it yet). If you ever find yourself in the Castle District, look for Tarnok 10 Galeria at Tarnok ut 10. It is on the right-hand side of the street as you walk towards Mattias Church. There were two older woman working while we shopped and they were very nice and wrapped everything to survive the trip home. After I was loaded like a packhorse we wandered down to the Fisherman's Bastion and enjoyed the views up and down the Danube. We began to be serenaded by some drunk Swedes (I shall not repeat the song on here) and decided that it was time to continue walking to the other end of the Castle District.

I think I will end here for now. Tomorrow I'll finish up the Buda Castle post by talking about a demolished church, cafe dining, and our quest to find a downhome hungarian-jewish restaurant.

Hungarian Cultural Inundation

Hello everyone. Sorry for the inconsistent posting about our trip, but I have been busy planning for my move and also coordinating my last few weeks at my current job. Exciting time are ahead, but for now it is back to Budapest. When I left off, Karena and I had finished our very first tour on a segway. It seemed like a lot happened, but that tour only took us to about noon or 100pm, so we had tons of time left for other activities. Both of us were a little thirsty and hungry, so we decided to find a cafe to plan out the rest of the day. It was nice to sit outside and just watch the world pass by. It is hard to do that in DC because a) it doesn't seem like we have that many cafes...just restaurants to rush you in and out, and b) every time I eat outside here, it seems like some homeless guy starts hassling me for food, money, or both.

I didn't have that problem in Budapest. The few homeless people I saw did not bother patrons that were enjoying their meals on the sidewalks. Anyways, so we had a nice meal...some croquettes and a nice salad. I drank a tasty Fanta Narancs (Fanta Orange). At the cafe, we were able to come up with a plan of attack for the afternoon: St. Stephen's Basilica, a tour of the Magyar Állami Operaház (Hungarian State Opera House), and the Néprajzi Múzeum (Hungarian Ethnographic Museum).

Hungarian State Opera House

I talked briefly about St. Stephen's in my previous posting. It is named for the first king of Hungary, King Stephen I (later canonized as Saint Stephen) who is most well known for spreading Christianity throughout his kingdom...which was considered pagan at the time. The inside of the basilica was very beautiful and is decorated with tons of red marble pillars and white marble statues of significant religious figures. The dome of the Basilica is 96 meters tall, to correspond with the Magyar arrival to the Carpathian Basin in 896. The dome is huge. I couldn't believe how large it was when I was staring at the ceiling. I guess from the outside the size is misleading because it is far away. I read in the Basilica that they can fit up to 85oo people comfortably inside. In addition to the nave and apse area, there were about eight to ten separate chapels where individuals could worship other religious figures from Hungary's past. It was all really beautiful. I'm always impressed by the way churches and other religious structures are decorated. The amount of detail, craftsmanship, and artistic expression of religion is truly spectacular. We wandered around as Karena took photos of various parts of the Basilica, but I was really bent on seeing the Holy Right...St. Stephen's Incorruptible Hand.

This was my first Holy Relic. To my knowledge, I don't think I have ever seen one in person before. So I was mighty excited to pay my 200 HUF so that the little glass case would light up and show off St. Stephen's hand. It was exciting, but Karena found it hard to take pictures of. I stood up there for 30 seconds looking at it. Apparently, the Holy Right is taken out for annual processions where Hungarian Catholics honor their country's first king. The hand was really small and delicate. Hungarians like to say that St. Stephen was a wee man and that his wife was taller than he was. Although it was small, brown, and shriveled, the hand did not resemble a California Raisin like I had originally envisioned.

Next up was a tour of the Hungarian State Opera House. We walked in for the 200pm tour and were immediately greeted by a scene similar to what we found in the baggage claim at Ferihegy Airport. It was pandemonium. My first thought was to turn around and wait for the 400pm tour, but Karena barreled through the crowd to the gift shop. There we bought our entry tickets and also our camera pass. Here in Hungary we encountered a new idea where tourists have to pay more for a ticket that allows you to photograph things. Since Karena is the camerawoman, she had to pay about 1000 HUF (5 USD) to take pictures. We were sent back out to the main hall where there were six tour groups all milling about. The Opera House ran six tours at once...all in different languages. The tours ranged in size from about 40 (English and German) to one (Hungarian). Our English group was so large that they divided us into two groups. We saw some of the people from our Segway tour earlier. The son didn't look much happier than he had been early that morning.

Karena and her camera

The tour was very informative. We learned that Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary commissioned the building to be constructed, but he said that the Hungarian Opera House could not be bigger than the one in Vienna. The word is that when he first saw it, Franz Joseph exclaimed "I said the Opera House could not be bigger than Vienna's, but this is certainly more beautiful." He was right. The inside of the Opera House was ornate. I mean the royal box was used by Madonna and Antonio Banderas when they were in town filming Evita. If it is good enough for Madonna, then you know it brings the bling. There is marble all over the place as well as on the floor. Other parts of the floor are tiled in frescoes. There are also painted murals galore. Check out this site for a great virtual tour. What tops off the Opera house is the three ton chandelier and the gold leaf that covers all the wall decorations in the main performance hall. YOWZERS!! Perhaps my favorite part of the tour was this old Indian man who kept asking questions so obscure that he constantly was confusing the tour guide. The poor girl obviously did not have a strong enough grasp on the intricacies of opera production between the years 1856 and 1871. Shame on her. I looked over at the end of the tour and he was standing in the aisle of the performance hall and had tissues stuffed in the collar of his shirt. I later saw him running after a bus when we were walking to dinner that night. Between running into Segway tour colleagues and this interesting fellow, I soon realized that Budapest is a small place!

We left the Opera House and navigated towards the Ethnography Museum. It wasn't too far, just down a couple of streets and across from the Parliament building. This place was really cool because it was made up of a bunch of collections from different parts of Hungary. It showed how Hungarian people lived in the small towns and hamlets before the modern age. The collections were set up to mirror a person from birth to death. Karena and I actually started backwards, with death, and moved forwards through to birth. Kind of like our own little Benjamin Button.

The first thing I learned was that in ye olden days, when Hungarians were married they were given clothes that they would be buried in. These clothes weren't necessarily the clothes they were married in. So, the museum presented everything in nice little sections...stuff like typical clothes from different sections of Hungary, pottery, furniture that you would find in the house, and religious objects. The museum also dissected daily village life and talked about things like trade, toys and entertainment, agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing, transportation, and the different professions needed to make life easy (tailors, hat-makers, shoe-makers, etc).

After finishing with the museum, Karena and I contemplated skedaddling over to the Buda side, but we couldn't figure out if it was going to rain. We decided to hold off for another day and find something to eat. We were craving a little variety so we talked about getting Chinese food. I know, I know...why are we going to eat Chinese food in Budapest? Well, for one, it is the best cuisine around, and two, I always like to try other takes on food that we think is common. This is one reason why I used to try and eat at a McDonald's in every country I visited (that didn't last long). Now, I think I will try to eat Chinese food in every country I go to. Anyways, we make it to this nice quaint restaurant and the first good sign I see...there are Chinese people eating there. Okay. I got a little confused when we had a Hungarian waiter, but he knew his dishes, so it was all good. The food was decent. Like Karena said in her post...it was no Great Wall Szechuan House (I love my jolly Szechuan friend), but the steamed beef dumpling was pillowy and delicious.

Okay, that is all for tonight. I am tired. Next up (hopefully Friday) will be flowery gelato, a market excursion, Buda adventures, and the invasion of the Swedes.

burning rubber on two wheels

Welcome to my second installment about our trip to Budapest. Sorry for the delay, but this has been a crazy week for Karena and me. You can read about what occupied our week here.

Anyways, so back to the virtual trip for all of my loyal readers...Friday was our first full day in the beautiful city of Hungary. We started off with the free breakfast that was included in our hotel rate. I love free breakfasts b/c they give you a great chance to stock up on food so you can keep the adventure rolling. Most breakfasts are the same, but our hotel stocked some delicious Hungarian salamis laid out on the buffet table. I know Karena had some of the b-fast foods, but I really don't remember anything else being present. Every day I ate about three to four slices of each of the four varieties available. I tried to even the health factor out with a couple of slices of cantaloupe and some eggs. I might have even been guilty of creating a fabulous sandwich out of salami, cheese, and scrambled eggs. Ahh but enough about the salami...I will tell yall a funny yet heartbreaking story in my last entry about Hungary.

I shouldn't have eaten so much at b-fast. I am a good American though and I think it is a genetic trait that we know how to punish free breakfast. After all, I wasn't going to be doing much walking today; we were scheduled to take a Segway tour through the Pest portion of the city. Segways operate two ways. The first way is that a user shifts their weight forward to go forward and backward to go back. The more weight you shift, the faster you go in either direction. To turn, all you do is rotate a little handle clockwise or counter-clockwise and you can rotate, 360 degrees, on a dime. SWEET!

The Danube River divides Budapest into two parts: Buda is the west bank and contains the famous Buda Castle District and Pest is the east bank and contains the famous Hungarian Parliament Building. I will tell everyone about Buda in my next posting. We left the hotel and walked around the corner to Discover Budapest which was going to run our Segway tour. It happened that we were going to roll around the city with five other Americans. I was a little concerned about this due to my past experience with other American tourists (see my experiences in Costa Rica); however, this group turned out to be different. The ones that talked were very friendly. So we got a 30 minute demo on how to run the Segway. I must have impressed the tour guide with my natural ability to shift my weight because I was asked to bring up the rear. This was a task of some importance as it was my responsibility to keep everyone in line and to make sure there were no stragglers. Monica (I think that was her name) even asked if I was a good skier. Hahaha...the joke was on her, I don't like the snow! So after everyone could roll up and down curbs we took off down Andrássy Ave towards Deák Ferenc tér. Before we even reached the first stop Karena glances her Segway off a pole. Oh jeez...this is going to be a long morning, I thought. Luckily, she was able to pull it together at the last minute and miss wrecking her transportation. The Segways moved at about walking speed, but you don't get any consideration from pedestrians or bicyclists on the sidewalks. The looks are divided between amazement by those jealous they don't have such stylish transportation and disdain by those who don't want to move out of the way as I plow down the street.
We rolled to Deák Ferenc tér and Monica gave us some good information about the buildings in the area, which ones were originals, which ones were reproductions, and which ones were built by the Communists (the last one wasn't hard to figure out). She also told us that Deák tér was a hub of transportation, having all three subway lines converge below it as well as the intersection of four to five roadways. We left and cruised down a small street and ended up at Vörösmarty tér which was very crowded with people sipping coffees and eating pastries from delicious Gerbeaud Cafe...we did not eat here, but were told it was good. I visibly sampled the offerings and they were delicious. We also saw this wierd building that looked like it was wrapped in a glass skin. Monica did not like it. She also notified us that we were at the northern terminus of Váci utca, the famous pedestrian shopping street. More on that later...we screeched off towards the Danube water-front area and were allowed to get off of our Segways. We stood overlooking the Danube as Monica talked about bathhouses, Turkish pillagers, and why we shouldn't patronize the restaurants in the area we were standing in. Apparently these restaurants have a problem overcharging non-Hungarians. It was refreshing to hear advice like that from a tour leader b/c she didn't tell us what restaurants to go to, just which ones to avoid. In my past experiences, "useful advice" has also been followed by "suggestive coercing" on where one should dine. We gazed our first glimpse of the Buda Castle District. I was struck by the size of the castle. I definitely didn't expect it to be so large...and this was even from across the river. It was more like an opulent palace on top of a hill...very picturesque and European. Who would imagine that a European palace would be found in Europe???

We hopped back onto our Segways. Monica had a surprise for us though...she told us that we could use the yellow "speed" key! Now, instead of moving at a walking pace we were moving a little faster than a running pace. Wahooo it was nice to feel the wind rush through my helmet. We drove down some apartment blocks and soon found ourselves in Kossuth tér, home of three fabulous Hungarian buildings: the Hungarian Parliament, the Museum of Ethnography, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. Monica told us that all three buildings were designed for a contest where the winner would become the Hungarian Parliament. The three buildings top scoring buildings were considered so beautiful that they were all built...obviously the parliament (below) was #1. The Museum was #2 and the Ministry was #3.
So, we rested here for a bit while Monica told us about he 1956 revolution and the memorial commemorating those events. There is a Hungarian flag with a hole in the middle where the hammer and sickle was cut out. I noticed a lot of people taking pictures of this monument. Monica also described the Ethnography Museum as her favorite museum in Budapest...Karena and I decided that maybe it was worth checking out. I'll talk about that later. We fired up our Segways and jumped back into traffic. Call me crazy, but I preferred to drive these things on the street. You never knew what you were going to get with pedestrians. Some of them would just stand and stare and made navigating hard. At least the cars understood that they were not to run us over...unless they wanted to have some trouble with the police. We rolled down some more small streets and I gazed up at all the decorations above street level. If you have time, click through this woman's blog for some pictures of the stunning details that I have been talking about. Sometimes I think that apartment buildings in DC should incorporate some of these features. Some do, and they look old and nice and regal. My current residence, however, just looks like a jumble of yellow bricks. I digress.

Our next stop was Szabadság tér, home to the Soviet Freedom monument AND the current American Embassy. There was some construction going on, so we didn't spend much time here. We were made aware of approximately 20+ security cameras (not even joking) that surrounded the US Embassy grounds. There were lots of elderly folks out walking their dogs in this park. It was very shaded and the grounds that were not under construction were covered with a nice carpet of grass. It was about this time that we started to have serious problems with one of our fellow tour members. This gentleman was about 6'4" and had to have the handles of his Segway extended to the maximum. I guess the Segway didn't like this because the locking mechanism went out, so he had to hold his handles steady. If he let go, they dropped to the lowermost position. Since this had nothing to do with stragglers rolling away I didn't pay much attention. We continued toward our second to last stop, Szent István tér home of Szent István-bazilika, or Saint Stephen's Basilica.
The square was huge...not Tien'anmen size, but still pretty large. There were tons of people milling around in the cafes and restaurants that surrounded the square. The Basilica was also huge...but maybe not since my only other experience is the basilica at Catholic University. Monica told us about the Holy Right...or the right hand of King Stephen. Apparently the King was buried and left alone for a while. For some reason that escapes me the Hungarians decided to open up his tomb and the only thing left of the King's body was his hand...magically mummified complete with fingernails and jewelry. The mummified hand is Hungary's holiest treasure and a religious relic. I vowed to see it. I was excited...my first relic! So I convinced Karena that we needed to see this child-size hand that I imagined looked like an over-sized raisin. I will touch on this later. Now it was time to speed off back down towards Andrássy Ave and the Discover Budapest office. It was almost 1230 and our stomachs were grumbling. Who knew that shifting weight and rotating the direction handle was such hard work. We sped up the sidewalk and thats when it happened. For some reason, two Hungarian electricians were pulling wires out of a box in the sidewalk. Not sure what was going on here, but it did not look safe. I think one guy was welding out on the street and we were going to have to navigate our little Segways past these two. Well, everyone made it up on the curb slowly and around the electricians...next thing I know one of our tour members turns at the last minute and crashes into a wall. It was hard not to laugh, especially when the man w/the broken handle followed into the wall after the first one. Then it was impossible not to laugh. I did slow down to make sure they were okay (they were) and then I continued on with the rest of the group. I know you all are thinking, "but Jamie, it was your responsibility to make sure that nobody got lost." And to that I will say that we were only two blocks from the street where the Discover Budapest office was. I yelled to Karena and Monica, but they were so far ahead of us that they couldn't hear me over the traffic. I figured they could make it back and they did. I even offered to take a picture of them with their Segways of Fire.

So to wrap this up I HIGHLY recommend using Segways. For the rest of the trip, Karena was commenting about how quick all of our walking would be on a Segway. They are a ton of fun and are easy to operate. That should wrap up this post on a city tour via two-wheeled transportation. In the next installment I will talk about the HOLY RIGHT HAND, the Hungarian Opera House, and Chinese food, Hungarian style. I hope yall enjoy!!

next stop, budapest

Hello friends, family, and blog readers. It is time for another installment of my ongoing travel journals. This set will take us to Budapest, Hungary.

Blog readers - I usually write these short pieces when I come home from abroad to give people and idea of what kind of experiences I have had. Friends and family - I have decided to take control of Karena's blog every couple of days to post my writings. I think it will be easier this way, so now all you'll need is a URL to access everything that I've written. No more worrying about individual emails. I hope everyone finds them enjoyable.

I bought plane tickets back in February to surprise Karena with a trip. I had planned to surprise her, but due to scheduling and Karena's persistent questions, I revealed our destination a couple of months before our departure. A lot of people ask me "Why Budapest?" To be honest, the decision was driven mostly by the cost of airfare. I found two round-trip tickets for $1300. That was cheaper than going to most any European city (aside from London) in early September. I was quite surprised by that. Also included in my decision was the fact that Hungary uses the Forint (HUF) instead of the Euro. So, the exchange rate was pretty favourable...I think it was $1USD bought 185 Ft. That is down from past years but things are still relatively cheap, especially considering that we would have had to use the Euro in other continental destinations.

We left Wednesday night on Lufthansa, had good exit row seats and ate a good meal on the plane. The flight crew was very personable and helpful. I'm always impressed by the standard of service on foreign carriers, especially compared to service on international flights operated by U.S. carriers (more on this later). The flight took us from DC to Munich and from Munich to Budapest. The leg to Munich was a fast seven hours and from there another 1.5 hours to Ferihegy Airport. Compared to my flights to/from Asia, the duration of seemed like a quick nap. We had a good layover in Munich, which is an amazing airport. It has free drinks, newspapers, and magazines spread out between every 5-10 gates. It is like a self service café inside of the airport...brilliant idea!

We arrived at Ferihegy around noon or so. Both of us were pretty tired since we only got a couple hours of sleep on our trans-Atlantic flight. We were definitely not prepared for the scene that we were going to be thrown into at the baggage claim. When we got off the plane in Budapest we traveled down a short walkway - not through any gate area - to some automatic doors. About one minute later the automatic doors open to a hazy bag area. WOW, it was a mob scene. It seemed like five planes had de-boarded all passengers and were trying to offload the luggage to one of three carousels at once. We were a little confused and disoriented and just stood in the doorway for a bit. This would have gotten us trampled in China. We soon threw ourselves to the fire and joined the madness by trying to navigate through all the people to the carousel we thought our bags would come out of. After about 10-15 minutes my bag made it. Oh yea, big red came through without any major harm! Karena's bag was a little difficult to locate since it is a small, rectangular, black bag similar to 75% of the other luggage in the area. We took a fixed-price taxi to our hotel, the Opera Hotel, and our driver gave us an impromptu tour as we got closer to the city center. He asked if I was on business, which I thought was a little strange until I noticed that I was still in my work clothes. Either way, he was a nice guy that pointed out some interesting stuff. I wasn't prepared for him to throw the death stare at me once we arrived at our hotel. See, I have a problem when it comes to tipping taxi drivers after long international flights. I'm not sure why this is...maybe I just get too confused by simple math in these situations. I do fine on the way to the airport and in countries where tipping is not customary, but watch out otherwise. Anyway, our fare came to 4800 Ft, I gave the man a 5000 Ft note and asked for 150 Ft in change. WHOOPS!!! Thinking that I was dealing in hundreds and not thousands, I thought a 50 Ft tip was more than adequate. At first he just stared at me, then he went through his pockets and pulled out some change. I saw at least 500 Ft in coins, so I thought that I was still good. Then he flipped me a 100 Ft coin and gave me a look like he was prepared to strap me onto his taxi and drag me up and down the cobblestone street. At that moment I noticed the error that I had made. So instead of correctly giving the nice man a tip, I hightailed it into the hotel :)

We checked in, showered, and napped...it was only 2pm after all. We figured that we had plenty of time to do some wandering and then catch dinner. Around 5pm we decided to get up and moving. Karena and I walked all the way up Andrássy út to Hősök tere. There were tons of fancy shops and beautiful buildings along the way. One thing that I read before leaving was to make sure to pay attention to the details of buildings above street level. It was true. It seemed like every office or apartment building, no matter how small, had amazing architectural details on the façade. Sometimes there were just designs in the pediments above the doors or medallions in the transoms...other times there were full figurines in alcoves at the roof line. The variation in architectural designs in these buildings was spectacular. We walked around Hero's Square and pondered the bronze casts of the seven Magyar tribe leaders and scenes from Hungary's history. We walked briefly into the City Park to find some water and wandered around the trails surrounding the small lake.

Karena and I were very hungry after walking around for so long. We also hadn't eaten since our flight from Munich so we decided to sit down and figure out a game plan for eating. This involved us navigating from the City Park to a restaurant that I had flagged that sounded delicious. Nevermind the fact that we were going to have to wind down roads that we couldn't pronounce...at least these streets had visible names. It was pretty cool to walk down through residential streets. The buildings all continued to have unique architectural elements to them. We even found a school that was so ornately decorated that it looked like something out of a fairy tale. So we continued walking for about 30 minutes and found ourselves on the corner of where we thought the restaurant should be. We walked up one block following the address numbers...no restaurant. We walked down one block following the address numbers...no restaurant. We walked up the block again...same results. It wasn't until I realized that the address we might be looking for could actually be on the corner. So we j-walked across the street and looked at the number. SCORE, we found the building. But wait, there was no restaurant to be found. I walked inside and there was a desk attendant sitting in the lobby. I must have had a confused look on my face. I looked at the man and he said "restaurant?" We nodded in the affirmative and he pointed us through to the courtyard. It was here that we found Feszek. You can read Karena's description of the restaurant here. Dinner was delicious. I had veal paprika with Hungarian cheese noodles. YUM. I'll leave the food talk to Karena, but let me tell you that I also loved the fried duck bites and biggie-size Dreher times 2. Total damage for dinner was 8780 Ft ($47), but that included one appetizer plate, two entrées, four biggie-size beers, two waters, and a 10% service fee. One funny thing did happen at dinner...the waiter spoke English to us throughout the service. When he brought the check I think he got a little confused though. He switched to German. Reaching all the way back to elementary school, I was able to understand some of what he said and managed to pay our bill. Maybe I understood none of what he was saying and the Dreher had a bigger effect on me than I thought. After dinner we stumbled out of the restaurant and wandered back to our hotel...both of us feeling deliciously full and relaxed. Let me tell you, getting to sleep was NOT a problem, especially when I had thoughts of burning rubber on a Segway tour the next morning!